Transgender

Forum


What's New?
Main Library
Search
Resources
Nightclubs
Personals
Photos
Pictorials
Chat
Hot Links
Events

Help &
Reaching Us




Book Chat: Neil Albert

By Elizabeth Parker

Most transgendered characters in mainstream books tend to be sideshow freaks; either dastardly villains, or quirky supporting characters. When a major character has a transgender experience, it is a novelty, or a McGuffin as Alfred Hitchcock liked to put it. I think this is a reflection of society's view of the transgender experience. If this is true, then as you'll see from this mystery series, society's view may be changing.

First let me say that of necessity, I'll need to ruin the main surprise for you in the first book. But with your transgender awareness, you will figure out the surprise long before the author intended anyway.

In Neil Albert's series of month-titled mysteries, the major character, Dave Garrett, is a disbarred lawyer turned private detective. He has been disbarred for taking the law exam in place of his wife(no, he didn't dress as her), an intelligent would-be lawyer with a testing complex. She had failed the bar exam seven times before even though she was an exceptionally bright student. After a failed suicide attempt, Dave finally agrees to take the test for her, but is caught and disbarred. To top off the irony, this causes Dave and his wife to divorce. Dave is an intensely self-analyzing man, with immense talents for detection and a stubborness which stands him in good stead in his line of work.

In the first book, "January Corpse", Dave is hired to find out what happened to a lawyer, Dan Wilson, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. In the course of his investigation, he encounters the lawyer's sister, Lisa Wilson. She is an attractive young woman, a former nurse, who is treated initially as another subject in Dave's investigation. Though forthcoming, Dave suspects she is not telling him everything she knows. He breaks into her house to find out more, and encounters two thugs. They surprise him and work him over. Lisa comes home during this incident and shoots them, displaying a great deal of composure. Dave stays with her to protect her, and they team up to find out what is going on. As people often do when thrown together under dire circumstances, they end up lovers. But at the end of the book, Dave figures out that Lisa is actually the missing lawyer. In a lengthy scene, Lisa explains her childhood, how she actually had a sister named Lisa who helped her crossdress. The person who actually disappeared was Lisa, not Dan. Dan took her identity to hide from the mob and fulfill his desire to become a woman at the same time. Interestingly enough, Dave displays no revulsion whatsoever at Lisa's revelations. It is more of an issue for Lisa than Dave. At the end of the book, Dave and Lisa decide to stay together as a couple and take a vacation to Cancun.

At the beginning of the next book, "The February Trouble", we find that Dave and Lisa had a fight in Cancun and broke up. It is not clear what happened. Lisa doesn't appear through the rest of this book and the next one, "Burning March". Consequently if you wish to read this series only for transgender activity you might want to skip these books. But if you enjoy good mysteries, I found them quite good.

Then in "Cruel April", Lisa returns when Dave asks her for help with a particularly mystifying case. He has fallen in love with a married woman, Kate, since he and Lisa broke up, and Kate has disappeared on a plane flight to finally join Dave for good. Midway through the book he decides he needs help of the sort the intelligent, unflappable Lisa can provide. She shows up like a good friend would, and they put their differences behind them to find Kate. It is quite clear that Dave continues to find Lisa attractive even while distracted by his concern for Kate. I found this to be the best book of the series in terms of suspense and the return of Lisa only spiced it up.

Dave is pretty beat up physically and emotionally by the end of the book, and "Appointment In May" finds him recuperating. Lisa is living with her mother and dating someone else. But she wants to break into private investigating, having shown an affinity for the work while helping Dave in the first book. She must serve several years of internship before she can get her own license, so she negotiates with Dave, who is having money problems, into allowing her to work for him in return for financial help. She does help him quite a bit throughout this book. A strong subplot has Dave trying to find out about her boyfriend, only to ultimately discover that there is no boyfriend; Lisa has made him up. She is a great help in solving this mystery and the book hints at a remaining strong attraction between her and Dave. Interestingly her transsexual status seems to not be a factor, only Dave's stubborn desire to not have a relationship with someone he works with. Their emotions are very complicated, just as in real-life.

In the latest outing, "Tangled June", Dave and Lisa team up to solve his latest case, Dave's own mysterious background. Lisa's increasing attraction to Dave and her desire to practice private investigation leads her to nose into his background. Dave's origins have always been somewhat hazy, but he has no desire to know anything further. That's not enough for Lisa, who starts poking around. This leads to great tension between the two, as you might imagine. When Dave discovers her activity, he is forced to pursue it further by taking a trip to Los Angeles with Lisa tagging along. They split up the work, and as the novel progresses we realize that Lisa has become a full-fledged major character in her own right. Dave and Lisa's viewpoints are presented alternatively, so that each character's views and activities are sympathized with fully. Finally, as the discoveries mount, Dave and Lisa come together as lovers again. Their passion is quite real, having been submerged for so long, and their taste for somewhat kinky sex is hinted at. At last, some of the facts behind their breakup in Cancun are revealed to each other and their relationship escalates to the next step.

Throughout this series Lisa is presented so sympathetically and realistically, so that we come to accept her as a real person, not just a novelty. Her transgenderism is not ignored, and is discussed quite openly. But it is just another facet of her personality. In fact, it begins to seem so normal, that the thrill factor goes away. But as education for the general public, and as an indicator of societal acceptance, this series works very well.

I want to give a big thanks to Tammy Fisher, who brought this series to my attention. It is through your suggestions that many of the best books are discovered. So if you've got any, just email Elizabeth Parker. (if this doesn't work, try my old email address)


Bibliography

Albert, Neil, "Appointment in May", Walker & Co., June 1996, ISBN: 0802732798 (Hardback)

Albert, Neil, "Burning March", E.P. Dutton, March 1994, ISBN: 0525937188 (Hardback)

Albert, Neil, "Burning March", Signet, March 1995, ISBN: 0451178602 (Paperback)

Albert, Neil, "Cruel April", Signet, April 1996, ISBN: 0451178610 (Paperback)

Albert, Neil, "Cruel April", E.P. Dutton, April 1995, ISBN: 0525937196 (Hardback)

Albert, Neil, "The February Trouble", Walker & Co., December 1992, ISBN: 0802712444 (Hardback)

Albert, Neil, "The February Trouble", Signet, February 1994, ISBN: 0451404173 (Paperback)

Albert, Neil, "The January Corpse", Walker & Co., October 1991, ISBN: 0802732062 (Hardback)

Albert, Neil, "The January Corpse", Onyx Books, February 1994, ISBN: 0451403770 (Paperback)

Albert, Neil, "Tangled June", Walker & Co., June 1997, ISBN: 0802733050 (Hardback)



Back to
TGF's
Home Page